High Tides on the Potomac

They place itself was awesome, but my wife wanted carry out. The place was deserted though when I picked up the order.
They need to change the fryer oil more often. I could taste the old oil.
My wife’s stuffed flounder had bones and crab shell in it.
I’ve had better and paid less for it.

Well first off the management is horrible, The servers are great except a few. I would recommend J.R. or Annie. Watch out for a guy that works there who’s name is Adam. Very disrespectful. The food is awful. I only recommend the sampler. All seafood is not fresh, the steaks have too much fat. If you buy alcohol drinks I recommend Kyle as bartender or Dawn. This place can be way better if the owners would take better care of the place.

Had a fantastic 2 week vacation in colonial beach. Spent most of my time in tides. The food is fantastic. My favorite was the crab imperial, but their Quesadas were all good. Wether you eat inside or outside they have something for all tastes.
The bands were stellar, ever weekend outside at the black pearl and tiki bar. The waitstaff and bartenders are all very attentive and helpful. Found some awesum new drinks that were perfect on this beach setting on advice from the bartenders. The hosts Bryan and Vicki Coffman are so caring to your needs and go above and beyond to accomidate you. Will tell my friends and family about this beach gem.

Had a fantastic Night, there was live band music on the beach cold beer and great wine. The restaurant and the beach are each access for both parking and ADA ramps etc. The Broiled Rockfish, Jalepeno Poppers, and Bacon Wrapped Scallops were all decadent and ample. The wife and I had a magical night.

Went there twice last week: during the week and on Friday.
The good:
The Calypso Chipotle Chicken Salad. The portion is huge.
My boyfriend said the Budweiser Wings were good
The live entertainment wasn’t bad (Simply Wicket)
Outdoor and indoor seating wasn’t bad either
The bad:
The Riverside Seafood Dip — no taste
My boyfriend said the same thing for the Vegetable Crab soup in the bread bowl
The turkey corn dog was the same kind you get in the store, which was disappointing.
Very pricey
I will try again in the future.

Service was slower than molasses albeit friendly; food tasted like it was frozen beforehand. Incredibly over-priced…don’t waste your time or money.

Breakfast/​Brunch on Sundays is the best time to eat here. They have a great all you can eat buffet with great views. I’ve been coming to CB for years and have seen the lunch and dinner meals at HT go downhill in quality and service, which is a shame because they have a prime location on the water. However, we do still enjoy breakfast here and really it’s the only time we come any more. Would love to see them step it back up with their lunch/​dinner entrees. Crab cake sandwich is decent and the Budweiser wings are great, other than that most items are overpriced and sub par. Service is hit or miss. Some very friendly staff– the owners are wonderful… But some of the wait staff seem miserable and like they would prefer to be anywhere else.

Our first clue this experience would be less than pleasant is when the waitresses were fighting over who would take our table as they had each «just gotten one.» There were maybe five other tables full in the place. There was no lettuce for the salad I tried to order. We asked the server what the fresh catch of the day was and she told us all the fish was flash frozen, but «not really frozen». It tasted like it was straight out of a box with no seasoning and microwaved til warm. She said the fresh vegetable of the day was corn but failed to mention it was straight out of a can. So if you would like to pay $ 20 a plate for frozen fish and canned corn, enjoy! The view is very nice, but next time we will enjoy a drink and save our money for good food somewhere else.

I have read the reviews posted about this place and it makes me sad. The environment was very friendly and upbeat. The crab legs were delicious! Yum! (I would suggest a couple all you can eat crab leg meal, just a thought) However the one thing I want to praise was the customer service. It was good throughout our time and the owner Vickie came and checked on us personally. She even went above and beyond and did a very kind gesture for us. My sister forgot her glasses in the changing room in the store next to the restaurant. We discovered it a little too late. Vickie offered to get the glasses for us the next day and send them to us. We only live in North VA but the gesture was so kind! I am so happy and grateful that she offered to do that for us. It’s not often you’ll find places that will offer such personal services with a smile on their face. Thanks again Vickie! Next time we come down, we will for sure come by again and recommend your place to our friends!

The food was okay but the service was so poor that for the first time in my entire life I didn’t leave one cent as a tip. I use to waitress for 11 years and to start things off we were seated outside as requested but never offered to place an umbrella at our table. Our waitress looked like she came straight off the movie «Pirates of the Caribbean» but had the attitude of a slug. My husband’s beer was warm, we never got our salad, the scallops were overly spiced with some blackened seasoning that I almost choked on. The waitress didn’t check on us hardly at all. I do have to say this, the drinks at the tikki bar area were great and the bands were always wonderful, but the restaurant section was a disappointment.

We should have left in the first 5 minutes. First, my seat had a huge glob of oil on it, that I sat in and it was all over my jeans. There was also a huge glob of oil on the floor. No idea why oil was there. I told our server and she said she’d get someone to clean it up but that never happened. And you’d think that management would be sent to apologize. Nope, that didn’t happen either.
When I went to the restroom to attempt to clean up, it smelled horrible and sorry, completely nasty, they needed not only to clean but also to empty the feminine waste containers. Yuck, yuck, YUCK!
The ‘food’. My husband had the fried fish sandwich which he said was oddly tasteless and was definitely frozen.
I had a salad and added shrimp. The shrimp was SO salty, I couldn’t eat it. Told the server, again, nothing more than a ‘sorry’… Could also tell that the shrimp was frozen shrimp. Even though it’s a seaside town and the menu said ‘fresh seafood’ all over it, total lie.
My server also had to ask if they could make a white wine spritzer (really???).
The service was slow and not very knowledgeable about the food. All the other servers, except for one guy out of a dozen, seemed to careless about anything.
Seriously, this place is a poor excuse of a restaurant. Listen, to the other reviews and DO NOT go! Horrible experience and I’m leaving hungry. And I would give it zero stars if Unilocal would let me.

This place was terrible. The table they sat us at was filthy. When the waitress came round she said she would send someone over to clean it up. No one did. My food was tasteless probably because the fried flounder I ordered had been freezer burned for a decade or more. The shrimp on my wife’s salad was was mostly salt. Awful awful awful.

Setting was nice.
Service was slow but okay.
Food ordered was 3 broiled Seafood combos, 1 Fried crab cake dinner and 1 Spiced shrimp dinner.
The outside of my baked potato was the first clue we had chosen a bad place to eat. It was so shriveled up it looked horrible and when I cut it open, I knew it had been baked several days ago. It should have gone in the trash, not on my plate. The cole slaw was not fresh. It was wilted and tasted of old onions. Corn on the cob was old and so was the baked sweet potato. Scallops and shrimp were over cooked, some of the tilapia was okay but the oysters could not be eaten. They looked like they came out of a jar or can. They were not fresh. The crab cake was a salty mush ball that didn’t taste anything like crab. Everything was covered in an Old Bay type seasoning.
The fried crab cake dinner, I understand tasted worse than the broiled crab.
I tasted one spiced shrimp and it was over cooked.
The best thing on the table was French fries.
Our check, minus gratuity was $ 194,00 It would have been nice to have enjoyed our lunch. We all went away hungry and amazingly disappointed. The food was HORRIBLE!!! Service was okay.
I would give this place a half a star if possible. I will always check Unilocal before eating anywhere again and I will never eat at a less than 4 star restaurant again!

Service was HORRIBLE. Food was decent though. I wouldn’t expect good things. I’m sure there are other places in the area that will appreciate their customer. Don’t waste your time. You can find good food and better service almost anywhere else.

I feel pretty mixed about this place.
The good:
The crab soup was amazing. Perfect and amazing with nice tender crab pieces in it. The apple sauce was also pretty good.
The view of the river was nice from the restaurant. Reminded me a tiny bit of Aurora in Lauderdale by the Sea.
The bad:
The crab cake sandwich just did not taste good. Too boring, watery, and too salty. The fries were few and boring.
Everything was expensive for what you were getting ($ 14 sandwich).
The waitress was slow and kept forgetting about us. The soups were small for $ 7.
Overall:
Pricey, slow and bad service, very meh food. Would not recommend.

Ate lunch there today. Was going to get soup until waitress walked by with steamed shrimp. It looked great so I ordered that and frozen sangria. Both were excellent! Sangria made by bartender, not from a mix. It was really good. The shrimp was perfectly steamed and seasoned.

Drinks: Decent and slightly generous with the alcohol content
Food: Crab legs were over cooked sadly but he dinner rolls were ok
Service: Bartender was nice and personable she even gave a free drink but unfortunately when there were more customers she seemed to get overwhelmed easily
Overall: This restaurant needs a lot of work staff & environment wise. Location is great and the décor is ok as it flows with the «beach town» vibe. When I walked in the servers were hanging out/​eating at the bar area which is a no no. I could hear their conversation which included a lot of profanity and inappropriate discussion. Apparently if you work there and have kids you can use the restaurant as a personal daycare as there was a child of one of the servers sitting at the bar as well. The kids were then banished to a table in the corner by themselves while the servers worked. Weird… There was excessive traffic through the kitchen area (employees on their day off and the kids in «restaurant daycare» as well) which I know for a fact isn’t acceptable for health/​sanitary regulations. Managers need to step up and make this a normal restaurant environment. Also, using profanity with a customer is never ok even if you’re old friends… Be professional… Always.

We’ve been here a few times. For the area, it’s a nice venue. The beach view is awesome and the prices are fair. When they have a band, the band is usually pretty good.
The prices are bit higher than I feel resembles the value of the food. Beer and other drinks are fairly priced and mixed pretty well. The food is usually pretty good and they have a somewhat diverse menu.
What really holds this restaurant back is the service. Having visited several times, I always feel like the food is very slow getting to us. The servers do not seem to have energy and never exceed expectations. Sometimes I feel compelled to clean off the silverware and glasses a bit before using them.
Food presentation is pretty basic. Nothing extraordinary.
All of that said, they are open for lunch, the prices aren’t crazy and the assortment is good.

I passed by the place and ignored recommendations from friends to eat elsewhere because they had the location and menu I wanted. The manager was friendly and accommodating to our outside 8 person party request. Our waitress, (one receipt said Amanda and the other said Alexis, but she was blonde, unpleasant, and forced a smile that will make you wish she just didn’t) was rude. Not endearingly rude, but short, snide, condescending, and definitely in the wrong profession. Any manager worth her salt wouldn’t have her talking to customers.
Among items ordered were ribeye steaks, steamed spiced shrimp, blackened salmon, and various kids meals. All entrees were right at twenty dollars and worth about half that.
Ribeye — kings cut was about half inch thick, I would guess around 9oz, and 30 percent fat.
Blackened salmon — cheap cut with grey, thin at one end and completely overcooked on that half. Not at all rich like blackened fish should be.
Shrimp (the reason I stopped by) were nice size but overcooked and dry.
Bloody Mary — weak but very tasty. The highlight of the dinner. Priced at 5.75, I would have paid a little more for more vodka.
Oh and the band was horrendous, although the act the next day (I saw them doing a Supremes song) was great.

The food and the service weren’t good. I ordered a cream of crab soup and the tropical island salad. The soup was so thick it looked like mayonnaise or pudding and it did not taste good AT ALL. I sent it back for the French onion soup, which was good. The salad had canned pineapple (as if pineapple is hard to come by) and some sort of pressed chicken patty thing that didn’t look appetizing at all. The service inside was super slow and took forever to get a menu and to get someone to take my order at the bar. Won’t ever eat there again, but I would go back to the outside area called The Black Pearl to drink and listen to music.